Marcos Schuster might not necessarily have a green light to shoot from anywhere on the court. It just seems that way.

Frenship’s senior guard started hot by scoring the first 11 points of the game, then would hit a huge 3-pointer every time it seemed it was needed, and the Tigers rode his 44 points to a 68-62 victory over Monterey in the District 4-4A opener for both teams.

“He’s been doing that all year long for us,” Frenship head coach Jason Dear said. “He’s had some games where he struggled but tonight ... that’s just what type of player he is. Every single time, whether it was a three or the back door layup and he gets and and-one, he was able to create his own shot. What a big-time player.”

Schuster did it in a variety of ways. He drained six 3-pointers, had six other field goals, including a trio of three-point plays, and was 14 of 17 from the free-throw line.

The rest of the team had just 23 points, and though Monterey (17-6, 0-1 in 4-4A) knew they had to at least slow Schuster down, it struggled to do so all night.

“Schuster’s a good player, he really is, but we didn’t do a very good job defensively on him,” Monterey coach David Chapman said. “We thought we had a plan on him, but you can’t take just one dimension away from him. He attacks, he shoots. You’ve got to be good defensively, and we’ll get there. He had a great night. Hats off to him.”

More importantly for the Tigers (18-4, 1-0), he came up with big plays down the stretch when the Plainsmen were threatening to pull even. He scored 16 of his 44 points in the fourth quarter — Frenship had 18 in the period total — and was 8 of 10 from the free throw line. He also converted a pair of three-point opportunities each time Monterey got to within a field goal.

Devin McMillian scored 17 of his team-high 27 points in the second half, almost single-handedly bringing the Plainsmen back from an early double-digit deficit. But Monterey also ran into foul trouble down the stretch as three starters fouled out in the final 3:26 of the game.

A pair of free throws by McMillian and a steal and a layup on the inbound pass by Zach Dayton brought Monterey to within three at 57-54. But the Tigers answered out of a timeout with a back-door layup to Schuster and two free throws.

Less than a minute later, four straight free throws by David McGinnis, who finished with 10 points, and Caden Brown, both of whom later fouled out, pulled Monterey to within 60-58. Again, Schuster answered with a three-point play, and Callen Stewart added two free throws to extend the lead to 65-68, essentially icing the game and giving Frenship a huge leg up in the district race.

“That gives us a little confidence going into the next couple of weeks, I think,” Dear said. “But like I said, we play 10 games and that type of game right there and how we battled back and forth, and how Monterey kept playing, it’s going to be like that all year long.”

The Plainsmen trailed 35-29 at the half and had to look no further than their struggles at the free-throw line to blame.

Monterey was just 9 of 18 from the line in the first half, missing either the front or back ends of six different two-shot opportunities. That allowed the Tigers to maintain the lead built by a tremendous start, and they were 11 of 13 from the free-throw line.

Schuster scored Frenship’s first 11 points of the game including three 3-pointers, within the first 31/2 minutes of the game. Schuster finished the first half with 19 points.

Monterey, though, was able to chip into that lead enough to stay within striking distance. The Plainsmen were able to cut the lead to seven at the end of the first quarter, and despite Frenship building the lead back to 10 late in the second quarter, used a 6-2 run to close the quarter and pull to within six at 35-29 to end the half.

McMillian started slow but finished the first half with 10 points, four rebounds and three blocks.